DNA Fingerprinting

 DNA Fingerprinting

• The chemical structure of every one'sDNA is same. The only difference between people (or any animal) is the order of the base pairs. There are so many millions of base pairs in each person's DNA that varies from one to other.

• Using these sequences, every person could be identified solely by the sequence of their base pairs. However, because there are so many millions of base pairs, the task would be very time-consuming. Instead, scientists are able to use a shorter method, because of repeating patterns in DNA.

• These patterns do not, however, give an individual "fingerprint," but they are able to determine whether two DNA samples are from the same person, related people, or non-related people. Scientists use a small number of sequences of DNA that are known to vary among individuals a great deal, and analyze those to get a certain probability of a match.